Prescott's Microbiology 8th Edition by Joanne Willey, Linda Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton, Lansing Prescott, John Harley, Donald Klein

Exercise 1

Briefly describe the scanning probe microscope and compare and contrast its most popular versions—the scanning tunneling microscope and the atomic force microscope. What are these microscopes used for?

Step 1 of 2

Scanning probe microscopes image a surface of a specimen by running a sharp probe over the surface. The probe detects changes in height as it moves across the specimen. These microscopes act sort of like a vinyl record player. The player has an arm with a sharp pin. This pin is placed on the vinyl record while it is spinning. The pin moves up and down through the grooves of the record and translates this to sound. Scanning probe microscopes work in a similar fashion except it is creating an image of the surface it is touching.